It is common to utilize small battery packs in electronic devices or small electrical appliances. Replacement of one small battery pack for another, for example one in which the batteries are depleted, is a common practice.
Replacement of heavy batteries, such as the common lead acid batteries employed in vehicles and in deep-cycle applications, is however far from a simple task, primarily because of the size and weight of the batteries. A single typical size lead acid battery weighs over 60 pounds. As a result, heavy battery packs (or battery banks) are currently designed to be recharged in situ, instead of being swapped or replaced by other heavy battery banks.
There are many situations in which heavy battery banks are employed; for example, in locations where regular line power is not available, such as remote locations, solar-powered, generator-powered, or wind-powered systems become necessary. Examples of such installations include remote communication sites and monitoring and surveillance stations. These types of systems have large battery banks containing multiple heavy batteries to supply power when the energy generating sources are not in operation. For example, a solar-powered system recharges its battery bank during daytime hours and stores the energy for use when the sun goes down. In rainy and cloudy seasons, when the solar panels cannot collect enough energy to charge the battery bank, a back-up generator is commonly used to actuate automatically to supplement power generation. With a large fuel tank for the generator, a battery bank in principle will remain charged almost indefinitely.
The above-described conventional approach has a number of drawbacks, including the following:
1. Small generators are extremely fuel inefficient. The cost per unit energy produced is among the highest of all power generation methods.
2. Small generators harm the environment in terms of both air and noise pollution.
3. These generators also have high maintenance requirements, requiring regular service.
4. The sizes of a generator and fuel tank typically are large, creating major challenges for applications where space is limited or when low visual profiles are desired.
5. Not only do the generator and fuel tank require extra cost for higher enclosure expense, the generator, the fuel tank, and the control electronics are quite costly. At certain geographic locations conditions may be such that the expensive back-up generator will sit idle for many months of the year, for example when a solar panel system provides enough electricity for the vast majority of the year, with generated power being required for just a couple of months.
6. Reliability is also an issue since back-up generators may not kick in when needed due to their many possible points of failure.
As will be seen below, the system of the present invention utilizes a plurality of manually maneuverable wheeled battery bank modules of a certain character to readily be transported to a site having electrically operated equipment and employed to replace depleted battery bank modules at the equipment, typically discharged modules.
While it is expected that the conventional existing approach described above will not go away, there are many situations where the system of the present invention is highly beneficial. In fact, this approach is deemed to be the only viable method where a generator and fuel tank are too costly or undesirable for some other reason. The method and apparatus of the present invention are suitable for many applications, including low power consumption applications which rely only on battery bank swapping, without the need for on-site power generation whatsoever. The system is workable in a wide variety of situations, particularly useful when transporting a large number of battery banks and for replacing battery banks at application sites where space is limited.
Battery carts per se, heavy battery replacement techniques, mobile battery trailers, and positioning carts on a truck are known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,626,972, 3,782,750, and 4,120,411 generally disclose battery moving carts or devices and unloading and loading batteries into them. These approaches are not practical or simply too costly to build. U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,513 depicts a portable battery cart as power source for jump-starting vehicles and includes a charging circuit as a complete stand-alone unit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,357,070, 5,360,307, 1,566,089 and 3,122,244 disclose battery moving devices and or methods to load or unload a group of batteries through a framed structure on rollers. They are intended to handle only one group of batteries at a time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,938,400 teaches the use of a battery trailer as a power source wherein the trailer is an auxiliary power source for mowing greens on a golf course. Patent Publication PCT WO 02/056440 teaches the use of a battery trailer with built-in traffic lights and solar panels to charge the batteries.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,370 discloses an automated latching and release system for handling a group of carts within a truck.
The above-identified patent publications do not teach or suggest the system disclosed and claimed herein.